ReAmping

EtherealEntity

EtherealEntity

Dreamer
Hey guys, newbie with a few questions about reamping here.
As I understand, the basic setup is as follows:

Guitar into DI box, splits signal into two. One to amp to hear while playing and mic up if you want. One clean DI signal to the mixer/interface for the later reamping.
And then later on, out of the mixer/interface into a reamp box, into the amp to record.

I heard I need a balanced cable between the interface and reamp box - correct?
I will be using a Firestudio Project at home for this - do the outputs on that actually take balanced cables? I presume so. Any way to check?

Finally, the Firestudio Project actually has two Instrument Inputs which as I understand are designed to eliminate the need for a DI box. Does this mean that I could effectively reamp with only a reamp box?
I understand this would mean I obviously don't have the split signal i.e. I'd be recording the DI track without hearing from my amp. But I could use a guitar amp sim on the PC. OR could I actually run the output LIVE into the reamp box into my amp while recording the DI track? Basically, do I need a DI box?

Thanks for any help you can give :)
 
I use a Little Labs redeye. it's a DI and Reamp box in one.

the DI out is a Mic level feed. therefore the interface is a mic cable to the Mic Pre

The Reamp in is XLR and balanced line level.. If your DAW output is TRS, you'll need an adapter. I made mine.
 
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EtherealEntity said:
Finally, the Firestudio Project actually has two Instrument Inputs which as I understand are designed to eliminate the need for a DI box. Does this mean that I could effectively reamp with only a reamp box?
I understand this would mean I obviously don't have the split signal i.e. I'd be recording the DI track without hearing from my amp. But I could use a guitar amp sim on the PC. OR could I actually run the output LIVE into the reamp box into my amp while recording the DI track? Basically, do I need a DI box?

Thanks for any help you can give :)
Click to expand...
Sonixx addressed the rest of it...
Yes you can just plug the guitar into the interface but, you are right, it won't split to your amp. You could get a simple 'Y' cable to split to your amp, since that is what is in most DI boxes.

If you plug into the interface and send the output of the interface into a reamp box to use your amp, you will run into latency problems. It takes time for the signal to go into the converters-into the software-out of the converters- and back to the amp. If the latency is more than a few miliseconds, it will make it very hard to play.
 
You might not even have the latency problem if your interface has zero latency monitoring. You ought to be able to just route the monitored signal straight from your interface to one of it's direct outs, not have to get the DAW involved. I know I've done it on a focusrite saffire pro 40 with a latency on the order of a couple milliseconds, if that. I don't know about the firestudio's capabilities in that respect, though.
 
Yep Firestudio latency is lovely :)
Thanks for all the advice guys :) Guess I will just buy a reamp box for now to save some cash - will try using it for live monitoring if it doesn't work, though it should be fine with the Firestudio, I'll grab a Y cable.
 
EtherealEntity said:
I heard I need a balanced cable between the interface and reamp box - correct?
Click to expand...

Yes, most likely a TRS to TRS or TRS to XLR male depending on the reamp box you pick.

EtherealEntity said:
I will be using a Firestudio Project at home for this - do the outputs on that actually take balanced cables? I presume so. Any way to check?
Click to expand...

Yes they do and they are definitely balanced, this end must be a TRS connection.

EtherealEntity said:
Finally, the Firestudio Project actually has two Instrument Inputs which as I understand are designed to eliminate the need for a DI box. Does this mean that I could effectively reamp with only a reamp box?
Click to expand...

Yes.

EtherealEntity said:
I understand this would mean I obviously don't have the split signal i.e. I'd be recording the DI track without hearing from my amp. But I could use a guitar amp sim on the PC. OR could I actually run the output LIVE into the reamp box into my amp while recording the DI track? Basically, do I need a DI box?
Click to expand...

That is the downside, but monitoring with an amp sim isn't all that bad. You sort of have me wondering why you want to reamp though. For me the DI is useful as an editing tool as you can group the amp track with the DI and it's easier to edit off the DI. Then reamp to get it down the way I want.


One more thing to note:

The cable that goes from the reamp box to the amp should be as short as possible as it is just a regular instrument cable. Long cables are a bad idea, I would say no longer than 3' and even shorter if you put pedals in the chain.
 
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